MH-230 cLOUDDEAD - TenTen finds cLOUDDEAD building on all of the elements that defined their debut: razor sharp vocal interplay, quirky found sound samples, ambient drone dreamscapes, lyrics that walk the line between observational and confessional, and a fair share of nosdam drums slowed to a growl. Doseone and why? never take the cheap way out. Their lyrics may range from blurry and buried to sharp and surfaced, but each and every line has meaning. The music and production are collaborative, featuring Doseone's knack for bottling emotion, why's self-taught multi-instrumentalist efforts, and odd nosdam's flair for borrowed genius. Individually, Doseone, why? and odd nosdam are as prolific and fearless as anyone in today's new music scene, but together as cLOUDDEAD they are able to create music that captures all of the promise of their individual talents in an unequaled sound.

After agreeing to call it a day a couple of times since their eponymous debut in 2001, wordsmiths Doseone and why? and samplemeister odd nosdam have got together again for a rollicking second outing. A mish-mash of odd found sounds, woozy synths and hip-hop beats form a bed for a collective scattershot collage of musings on love, life and mortality; at times the group draw heavily on Odelay-era Beck and its ilk, and at their best they beat the boy Hansen at his own game. Much of the time the lyrics are pure nonsense, but occasionally ("The Teen Keen Skip") they hit peaks which would have pleased Kerouac or Ginsberg. It all makes for an intriguing listen, with the single "Dead Dogs Two" a rough-diamond centrepiece of strange, disorientating facets. - The Observer